BW42: Noah Webster

Noah Webster: Portrait by James Herring, 1833

Happy Sunday! Today is Noah Webster's birthday, the father of the American Dictionary. October 16 is named Dictionary Day in honor of Webster.  We have the second edition unabridged Webster's dictionary which is humongous at 3194 pages, and a slightly smaller fifth edition collegiate edition at 1274.  It's interesting to compare them to the modern 2022 edition of the Merriam Webster dictionary, a mere 960 pages.  I prefer the older versions which are much more fun to peruse. I really need to get my hands on an Oxford English Dictionary one of these days.  When I'm writing, I always have Dictionary.com or Thesaurus.com tabs open in my computer, exploring different words. I prefer the online versions over the current Merriam Webster edition which has definitely been dumbed down.  

Noah Webster's Story

Noah Webster and the Dream of a Common Language 

Noah Webster’s Impact on Education

An Inconvenient Alphabet: Ben Franklin & Noah Webster’s Spelling Revolution

Project Gutenberg's A Collection of Essays and Fugitiv Writings, by Noah Webster

This week's A to Z and back again letter and word of the week are K and Kin.

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